Watching the national team on the sport’s biggest stage was a football club with a clear ethos of their own. This is Crystal Palace Ghana, a community club dedicated to south London’s finest.
“When we were growing up, we had older brothers and sisters who were already in the area team,” Elvis, one of the club’s players, explains. “Quite a number of them travelled to the UK and were based in Croydon. They were Palace fans so it’s from there that everything started.”
But Elvis and his teammates have long since become more than just fans – soon their devotion to Palace caught the eye. “Everything became Palace, Palace, Palace,” he says. “For years we had been representing the club until we decided to get the official jersey in 2020.